Scientist Was Murdered, Sons Say

RELATIVES CONCLUDE CIA HAD A HAND IN '53 FATAL FALL

FREDERICK, MD. - Relatives of Frank Olson laid out for reporters
Thursday their evidence that the research scientist was the victim of
something far more sinister than a CIA experiment with LSD gone awry
in 1953 when he fell to his death from a hotel.

Speaking to reporters in the back yard of their family home, not far
from the Fort Detrick research facility where Frank Olson worked, his
sons and grandchildren took turns reading a lengthy statement that
contends his fall through a New York hotel window was no accident.

"We have satisfied ourselves that Frank Olson was murdered because of
security concerns regarding his work," said one son, Eric Olson,
citing his father's work both on biological weapons and on
interrogation techniques. It was not, he said, a conclusion that the
family came to easily.

The Olson family has spent years trying to piece together what
happened to Frank Olson, ever since learning through newspaper
accounts in 1975 that an unnamed scientist who jumped to his death out
a New York hotel window in 1953 had been given LSD days earlier.

In July 1975, the family called a news conference at the same backyard
site to announce that they felt "violated by the CIA."

White House officials quickly called family members, saying they would
support their bid to be compensated for the incident. President Gerald
Ford called the family to the Oval Office and then directed CIA
Director William Colby to meet with them and reveal all the
circumstances of Frank Olson's death.

Ever since, the Olsons have struggled to make sense out of what
happened, assembling a series of details that raise questions about
the government version of the story, even if their efforts did not
prove that Frank Olson's research caused him to be killed.

They also discovered through internal White House memorandums that at
the very time the White House was promising to cooperate, key
officials were discussing how to keep the family from learning the
truth about Frank Olson's work.

Soon after the family learned that Olson had been the victim of a CIA
experiment that went awry, the White House began outlining a strategy
"that would ensure that we did not request pertinent information
regarding what had actually happened," said a second son, Nils Olson,
Thursday.

White House officials told the Olsons "they were concerned that if we
went to court we might lose and not obtain what the White House
regarded as appropriate compensation," Nils Olson said. But the real
concern within the White House, he said, was to hide as much
information as possible about Frank Olson's research.

That strategy, said Nils Olson, is evident from reading memorandums,
reported Thursday in the Mercury News, between Ford administration
officials that included Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, now the vice
president and secretary of defense, respectively.

Those memorandums express concerns that the White House might find
itself ordered to reveal details of Frank Olson's work -- details that
the CIA felt should not be revealed -- if the case went to court.

Among those gathered for the news conference Thursday was Dr. James
Starr, who conducted a forensics investigation that led him to
conclude, he said, "that the most likely scenario was that Frank
Olson was the victim of a murder."

Starr's investigation occurred in 1994, after Nils and Eric Olson had
their father's remains exhumed. The family intends to rebury Frank
Olson at a ceremony today, since "we believe there is nothing more to
be learned," Eric Olson said.